Balotelli is back: Super Mario scores opener in AC Milan win

Milan opened the scoring after just five minutes when Balotelli curled home a wonderful free-kick into the corner from 25-yards out.

Since Balotelli returned to Milan, he has played in a friendly during the global break and come off the bench twice in Serie A – something which could be enough for to warrant a start on Tuesday.

“The first half was good, it was one-way traffic and we were 3-0 up”.

The former Manchester City striker is now on loan in Italy from parent club Liverpool, but is already showing better form than he managed during his 12 months at Anfield. If Balotelli can keep that up for a full match, we may see the start of a true resurgence from him in this match. The coach will also hope that Duvan Zapata can get his act together and play better in attack combining with the experienced di Natale upfront. Oh well, we’ve got Balotelli now and he’s younger.

Mario Balotelli, sporting a new hair cut, won a risky free kick inside four minutes when Mattia De Sciglio fed him inside after great work on the left flank.

In many ways, he is a Mario Balotelli type player, but one who knuckled down and really fulfilled his potential – and continues to do so. Keisuke Honda set up Carlos Bacca with an intelligent pass, yet the Colombia worldwide hesitated too long and his shot was eventually blocked by Manuel Iturra. Bonaventura sent his corner to the back post and Cristian Zapata beat his marker to the ball before diagonally heading home for his side’s third.

Reds fans must be wondering just why there was none of this during his miserable spell on Merseyside. In our past two matches we have tried to adopt that approach and I think it went reasonably well.

The score at half time was 3-0 in favour of Milan, and Stefano Colantuono had a real task to motivate his side in order to avoid an embarassing scoreline.